Monday, December 22, 2014

At our kids' school Gala and Auction a couple of months ago, The Husband and I spent a lot of time trying not to be intimidated by the live auction. First, there was a Glamazon auctioneer who reminded me of a Stepford Wife on robo-auctioneer mode. Second, people clearly had done this before, adeptly flashing their number cards at high-speeds with subtle nods of their heads. Items were going for high bids - surprisingly high. Generosity was in the air, and important factor: there was an open bar. It was nearing the end and we still hadn't raised our number card into the air, but we wanted to contribute but YIKES.

The next item up for bid was for a fire truck to come to your house for the kids to explore and play on. A fire truck! Our boys would be on cloud 9. By the time we considered this, the item was sold for an enormous amount. Back to the drawing board.

The last item was a personal visit from Santa Claus. As in, SANTA VISITING OUR HOUSE. This would be amazing. Girl, at 9, was nearing the end of Santa days and this would be the year to do it. The Husband and I decided to bid on it and determined our bid ceiling. It was a bidding war! The bid kept climbing higher and higher but we outbid the other party (and still hadn't reached our personal max). Santa was ours! Kids' minds would be blown!

Last week, I spoke with Santa on the phone to fill him in on our kids' likes and gift requests that they had already made to a separate Santa. He is a fellow parishoner at our church but I didn't know him beforehand. This was going to be good.

On Saturday night, the doorbell rang. The kids, as they always do, ran to see who it was. We heard distinctive bells. Lo and behold it was SANTA! At our door! We invited him in and he sat down on our living room couch next to the Christmas tree. He was accompanied by his "local helper." My parents and my MIL had come to hang out (conveniently) and immediately launched into cellphone video mode. The kids gathered around Santa with glee.

Santa asked Boy2 to come see him. Boy2, 3, wasn't too sure. But, Girl, who was sitting on the floor with legs extended, shook them with excitement that Santa knew Boy2's name. She kept doing that: screaming and shaking her legs whenever Santa would produce a very specific detail about any of them. She was clearly beyond thrilled.

Santa asked Boy about Taekwondo and to show him some of his moves. Boy did a cartwheel and some push-ups. They talked about school and their hobbies and their gift requests. At certain points, I could see Girl eyeing Santa's drooping and sometimes falling mustache (the suit was golden but the facial hair was pretty synthetic looking). Boy. 6, has questioned the Tooth Fairy's true identity in the past so I knew he might be a bit skeptical. But, they seemed to go with it. Santa was great. He was funny and poked fun at The Husband, "It's been a long time!" and questioned how good he was this year.

It was a lovely, magical moment next to the tree with Christmas Pops playing in the background. I asked Santa if he had any special advice for our children. He told them how important it was to listen to us and to give us a hug and kiss every day. He requested oatmeal raisin cookies on the big day and a little cup of milk (he's trying to lose some weight). We all hugged him, and he went on his merry way. The reindeer were probably getting antsy.

Afterwards, Boy asked if that was the real Santa, for which we continued to play it up. Of course! Girl, who is very much into fantasy, wanted it to be true and seemed to be happy to believe it was.

The next morning, Boy appeared at my bedside early in the morning. "Mama, remember when Santa came to visit our house?" He grinned his two-front-teeth-missing-grin.

"Yes, I remember! That never happened to me before!" I said.

"Me either!"

After church later that morning, we were gathering the kids who were running around the grounds with friends. I saw, up ahead, a rotund bearded figure in the distance wearing a dark hat, making his way to the back doors for the next Mass. It was Santa. It was difficult to recognize him out of uniform. The kids would have never have guessed. He saw me, saw the kids running around, and waved with a smile. I waved back, feeling a sweet secret joy and a sense that Christmas was truly upon us.

Saturday, September 27, 2014

The Husband is truly gifted at giving presents. Even while we were dating, he never wanted to give me something that anyone could give me. No florist's bouquet but hand-picked wildflowers. As the years have passed, his presents have only grown more thoughtful. Perhaps my most favorite present to date was the essay he wrote me for our 10th wedding anniversary which I still take out from time to time to re-read. It is pure treasure.

For Christmas last year, he gave me a session with a style expert to take my closet to the next level. When I told this to my friend recently, she said, "That is the perfect present for you." I'm into fashion and I think I definitely have a style of my own. To have an author/fashion commentator/style maven study my closet and do whatever she does (to be honest, I wasn't exactly sure but it sounded good and important), sounded fun. Although I would have to explain that corner of the closet where I put "future Halloween costumes."

We finally set an appointment this summer -3 HOURS in my closet. It took me forever to contact her (remember, it was a Christmas present) because hello? Getting my closet to a place where I would not be mortified at having an author/fashion commentator/style maven look at it took some blood, sweat and tears.

When A/FC/SM arrived, we first took a quick peek into the walk-in closet. Our walk-in closet is pretty amazing, I must say, in terms of sheer size and capacity. It was one of the major selling points for me of our house. Of the entire thing, my things occupy around 90% and The Husband 10%. What? He has a dresser! I think A/FC/SM was impressed. She oohed and aahed at the space.

We then chatted about my daily routines, what I do at work and on the weekends so she could get a sense of my clothing needs. Then we got to work. We literally went piece by piece and I'd talk her through them.

Sample diagloue when she picked up a favorite item of mine:

"It's really cute. Do you wear this?"

"Well, yes, at talks and other big events."

"Which is how often?"

"Mmm...not too frequently. I'm afraid of ruining it!"

And of many many other less favorite items:

"So this I've had for a long time.."

"It looks 90s"

*laugh* "Yeah, I guess so. Haven't worn it in forever."

"Can it go?"

*shortly thereafter, item dropped unceremoniously into massive pile of sad old clothes that I would unlikely wear again unless I was transported back in a time capsule to 1998.

It was actually useful since I got rid of a lot of items that would never be in fashion again, simply clogging my style arteries and making it difficult to see all the awesome items in there. (I was quite proud she shared my enthusiasm over a number of items - and some surprises too.) I admit I did rescue a few things out of the donate pile because...maybe! But still donated 4 large trash bags to Goodwill.

I also made a commitment to wear those items that I love on a regular basis instead of saving them for important events. "Wear them now. They won't be in style forever." Wise words from A/FC/SM. I picked up some good tips (like always tie the ties on a wrap dress along the same direction of the wrap and never in a bow!) and bonus - felt even more confident about my style which she described as "fashion forward but with a classic frame." I'm glad it was that and not "Hobo with a side of horrible."

It was a lot of fun. I laughed a lot. 3 hours flew by and we didn't even get to my casual clothes, pants or shoes. Totally indulgent and I would never have gotten such a session for myself, but as a present? Brilliant.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Boy, 6, was using the Doodle Pro (magnetic drawing board that has got to be one of the best toys we've had in terms of use as opposed to the other 99% clogging up our house). His drawing skills have matured from unrecognizable blobs to more recognizable blobs. He's actually pretty decent now. His renditions of the full Stations of the Cross circa Easter 2014 were impressively dark.

Boy was now super jazzed about drawing a "scene" and making us adults still eating dinner at the table guess the scene. For instance, he drew a blob arm breaking an egg with 3 blob eggs falling down into a blob bowl. Note, this was not immediately recognizable, but with time, we were able to crack the case as it were. Boy proceeded to create scenes, mostly involving cooking in the kitchen and one blob arm extending into the scene and doing the action.

The next scene was up. Boy stood behind the DP smiling as we again made out the blob arm holding a....salt shaker? Ketchup bottle? And some kind of mess below. Easter grass that you stuff in baskets? Salad? Pasta? This was pretty abstract.We were stumped.

He finally had to explain the scene. The arm was holding a glass upside down, about to plunge it into the plate of kosher salt.